Roses & Raspberries

A ‘Fellowship of the Board’ rose

A rose to the Tri-City Healthcare District board for choosing wisely in filling two vacancies.

Ramona Finnila is cut from the same cloth as Julie Nygaard, the board’s reigning common-sense champ. The two served together on the Carlsbad City Council and got things done in an effective, harmonious fashion – two qualities that sadly have been lacking on the board for far too long.

James Dagostino, a physical therapist, has given much of his time as a volunteer to Tri-City, serving on various committees and boards. In his application, he wrote that the health care district “has fallen victim to a poor image – some of it self-caused, some through no fault of its leaders.” Clearly, he gets it.

The fact that both Finnila and Dagostino were chosen unanimously from a field of 14 applicants is certainly a good sign. We hope this spirit of camaraderie continues.

A ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall’ razz

A raspberry to a proposed lawsuit settlement that calls for council members in Escondido to be elected by district, instead of citywide. The settlement, which both sides in the lawsuit expect to become law April 19, comes after a 15-month legal battle between Escondido and a voting rights lawsuit filed by five city residents, claiming that Escondido’s at-large elections discriminate against Latinos.

We’re all for equitable elections, and we share the frustration felt by some in the Latino community that while Latinos make up nearly 50 percent of the city’s population, only two Latinos have been elected to the city council in Escondido’s 125-year history.

But while by-district elections make sense in major cities such as San Diego and Los Angeles, in smaller towns they tend to breed divisiveness. Council members tend to zero in on their district’s wants and needs instead of doing what’s in the best interest of their city as a whole, and you run the risk of developing warring factions instead of a functioning legislative body capable of seeing, and acting on, the big picture.

Of course, even the existing system of citywide elections hasn’t prevented warring factions from developing in, say, Escondido and Oceanside. But we fear a move to district elections will only make the problem worse.

A ‘Just Bag It’ razz

A raspberry to the Solana Beach City Council for foolishly deciding to leave its plastic-bag ban intact — including the odious 10-cent charge for each paper bag used that retailers simply pass on to their customers. As we’ve stated before, banning plastic bags does nothing for the environment. Paper bags are far more wasteful, and reusable fabric bags aren’t sanitary.

And charging people money for each paper bag they use — paper bags that in the good old days, before plastic, were free — in the hopes that they’ll switch to reusable bags is simply irresponsible, in light of studies that associate various health hazards with the fabric totes.

And therein lies the peril of any nanny state – or nanny city, as the case may be: nanny doesn’t always know best.